The CarMax warranty came though. They are paying up to the purchase price of the vehicle, covering almost $13K. I am having to pay about $1K on top. I am happy with this outcome.

The one downside I hadn't factored in, is that my warranty now comes to an end and will not cover any future repairs, so I will have to source my own replacement parts in future.

I'm now waiting for the replacement drivetrain to arrive at Toyota Carlsbad, which could take up to two months.

Interesting, wasn't the warranty for a specified time and mileage? If so, was there a clause that limits their liability and allows them to cancel it because of the cost of repairs? It seems they should be on the hook for the duration of the warranty period, otherwise the warranty was sold in a misleading manner.

The CarMax warranty came though. They are paying up to the purchase price of the vehicle, covering almost $13K. I am having to pay about $1K on top. I am happy with this outcome.

The one downside I hadn't factored in, is that my warranty now comes to an end and will not cover any future repairs, so I will have to source my own replacement parts in future.

I'm now waiting for the replacement drivetrain to arrive at Toyota Carlsbad, which could take up to two months.

Interesting, wasn't the warranty for a specified time and mileage? If so, was there a clause that limits their liability and allows them to cancel it because of the cost of repairs? It seems they should be on the hook for the duration of the warranty period, otherwise the warranty was sold in a misleading manner.

Even the Toyota Platinum warranty has similar limitations. Toyota's warranty will only pay for a single repair up to the present market value of the car and will only pay a cumulative amount up to what the car was worth at the time the warranty was purchased. After all, it is basically an insurance policy, not a manufacturer's guarantee. I can post the specific language in the warranty booklet later if you're interested.

I just got my drive unit replacement approved on the manufacturer's Powertrain Warranty which expires after 5 years or 60,000 miles. These limits on the extended warranty are the reason that I made sure to get the car evaluated for drive unit noise while it was still on the manufacturer's warranty.

Mine's at 58k. It had noise when I bought it, but not really annoying. It's gotten quite a bit louder, so I dropped it at Toyota of Seattle yesterday for the evaluation . . . driving the E300 again instead

I knew I was going to get the DU replaced, I just figured I'd wait until I got closer to 60k. The noise is now louder than the VPNS.

Just got my motor replaced yesterday at Toyota of Palo Alto. (Mine's an October 2013 with 36K miles.)

Oh my word, it's so quiet!! The sweet sound of silence (tire noise aside). I had forgotten how quiet it originally was!! Here I had been waiting for the noise to become apparent enough to avoid any hassle with the dealership. I probably could have brought it in a while ago.

However, see also this discussion about how Toyota of Palo Alto will likely try to charge you close to $600 to replace your "battery service plug", starting here:viewtopic.php?p=27257#p27257

As Miimura stated, warranties pay a cumulative amount up to what the car was worth at the time the warranty was purchased. I got my RAV4 for a very low price ($13K) hence my warranty will be over after this claim.